Scan barcode
hannahwhiteyy's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
This was a really good book! Written by a queer author, the book showcased a beautiful diversity of gender, sexuality and race. It was slow-paced in the beginning, which I didn’t love - hence the 4 stars. By the middle and end, I was truly engaged and genuinely related to each of the main characters. Worth the hype, but be careful of the content warnings!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Grief, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Gun violence
Moderate: Mental illness, Drug use, Drug abuse, Addiction, Alcohol, Trafficking, Stalking, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Racism
booksthatburn's review against another edition
I love Fae and Greek mythology, so when I realized this was going to give me Tisiphone and the High Court all in one book I was intrigued. Ultimately I’m stopping because it feels like it’s trying to do too much, and by trying to remember the many characters and track the complex blend of two already massive paradigms/pantheons... it got to be overwhelming. The Furies are great, and the Furies plus the Faerie Courts would be really cool, but the Furies, the Greco-Roman creation myth, complex systems for inheritance, political machinations, a serial murderer (or murderers), and the marginalization of the faeries (which are different from the Fae), and the persecution of the Ironborn (which could variously be considered Fae, Faerie, or human?)... it’s a lot. It would be a lot for even a trilogy to establish gradually, it begs for the room to have major details conveyed simply at first and then expanded, distorted, and recontextualized over the course of two books minimum. You can do really cool narrative things with “knowing” something then finding out your information was wrong and it changes how you think about what came before. Here things were established, rebutted, and adjusted so quickly I’m not even sure if they were supposed to be changes at all. I made it just over a third of the way through and I feel overwhelmed by the world and underwhelmed by the plot.
My one regret by not finishing this is I won’t know how things resolve for Tisiphone, but there’s too much extraneous stuff around her very interesting backstory for me to get fully into this one thing I like.
My one regret by not finishing this is I won’t know how things resolve for Tisiphone, but there’s too much extraneous stuff around her very interesting backstory for me to get fully into this one thing I like.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Violence
Minor: Body horror and Suicide
Full CWs provided from the Author’s Note. TWs may be incomplete. CW for anger, arson, blood/gore, body horror (minor), death of a child, depression, disownment, divorce, drug use/addiction, grief/grieving, human trafficking, poverty, psychopathy, stalking, suicide (past, off-page), suicidal ideation, toxic relationship/manipulation, trauma/PTSD, racism, violence/gun violence. TW for Harry Potter reference (page 169).irlchaosdemon's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Drug use, Drug abuse, Addiction, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Trafficking, Torture, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Sexism and Misogyny
victoria_tsonos's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood
Moderate: Drug abuse and Drug use
Minor: Body horror
utopiastateofmind's review against another edition
3.0
(Disclaimer: I received this book from Netgalley. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
A Dark and Hollow Star features four queer teens who find themselves involved in a series of murders destabilizing their world, as they know it. It's been a while since I've read an urban fantasy with Faeries. A Dark and Hollow Star is set in Canada and bites off a huge chunk with epic and broad world building. It's a world of multiple courts, magical creatures, and banned magics. My main issue with A Dark and Hollow Star was how slowly it unfolded.
I'm all for slow burns and unfurling worlds, but by about 20% I was still not really grasping the crescendo of action and still a bit confused about the backstories of the characters. Since I'm normally a fan of multiple POV novels, I'm not sure if it's a combination of the fact that the switches sometimes made the narration feel a bit slower, or the combination of the slowly unfolding intrigue, but I wasn't as invested as I wanted to be as early as I wanted.
A Dark and Hollow Star features four queer teens who find themselves involved in a series of murders destabilizing their world, as they know it. It's been a while since I've read an urban fantasy with Faeries. A Dark and Hollow Star is set in Canada and bites off a huge chunk with epic and broad world building. It's a world of multiple courts, magical creatures, and banned magics. My main issue with A Dark and Hollow Star was how slowly it unfolded.
I'm all for slow burns and unfurling worlds, but by about 20% I was still not really grasping the crescendo of action and still a bit confused about the backstories of the characters. Since I'm normally a fan of multiple POV novels, I'm not sure if it's a combination of the fact that the switches sometimes made the narration feel a bit slower, or the combination of the slowly unfolding intrigue, but I wasn't as invested as I wanted to be as early as I wanted.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Racism
More...